A Queer Poly Socialist

William Henry Harrison was sixty-eight [68] years old at the time of his death. He did indeed give a two hour inaugural address in the rain, but it was in March, because that's when the United States used to do that. However, Harrison seems to have been one of those people who wasn't particularly bothered by cold. He actually took morning walks every day both back home in Ohio, and through the DC markets, rain or shine, summer or winter. Also, cold doesn't make you sick. Viruses and bacteria make you sick. And again, Harrison was sixty-eight. He was also constantly interviewing people looking for positions in his government, and having to do a lot of entertaining.

His initial illness was likely just the common cold. He probably picked it up from someone in the markets, or someone who came to interview. But because it was 1841 and Western medicine was less a science and more stupidity at this point, the man was subjected to blood-letting and a few other things that did more harm than good. Not only that, the water source the White House was downstream of public sewage. The symptoms described means it is more likely he died of septic shock via typhoid, through no fault of his own.

Typhoid symptoms can appear over a few weeks. They include: Fever that gradually gets worse over several days Headache Chills Loss of appetite Stomach (abdominal) pain “Rose spots” rash, or faint pink spots, usually on your chest or stomach — these can be hard to see on dark skin tones Cough Muscle aches Nausea, vomiting Diarrhea or constipation [...] Complications include: Bronchitis, pneumonia or other respiratory issues Bone inflammation (osteomyelitis) Heart inflammation Hole (perforation) in your intestines Inflammation in and around your brain (encephalitis or meningitis), which can cause confusion, delirium and seizures Internal bleeding Kidney failure Swollen or burst gallbladder

Fun Fact: Harrison dying in office is how we ended up with the laws of succession in the United States government, that is, the Vice-President becoming President. That was not a thing prior. We'd never had one die in office before, so there wasn't a rule about it yet!

But it was a good thing we'd gotten that down, because nine years later, Zachary Taylor was the 12th president, and died in 1850, seventeen months into his four-year term, almost to the day. There were rumors he was assassinated that persisted until the 1980s, when Taylor's closest living relative consented to have him dug up and tested, probably so people would shut the fuck up about it, finally. There was no evidence of any poison in the samples taken. The likeliest answer, from the accounts of the day, descriptions of his symptoms and the symptoms of the several other people who got sick, is that he caught cholera from the same contaminated water that probably took out Harrison. Because the White House water source was still downstream of the public sewage.

The bacteria Vibrio cholerae (V. cholerae) causes cholera. V. cholerae live in warm, mildly salty (brackish) water. When you drink water or eat food contaminated with V. cholerae, the bacteria stick to the walls of your small intestine. There, they release toxins that cause diarrhea.

It was July in Washington D.C., which is swampland. It was all warm, brackish water, and the water in the White House was also full of fecal matter from horses and people and god knows what else.

Thomas Jefferson died of a combo hit, but it wasn't helped by the various urinary and intestinal diseases he'd had that had wreaked havoc on his guts. And many of those were likely caused by contaminated water. John Adams died of a heart attack, granted. But his wife, Abigail, died of typhoid. Madison died of congestive heart failure. McKinley died of infection [gangrene], not the bullet, not helped by the doctors sticking their filthy hands in his insides trying to find the damn bullet to remove it.